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Tears, joy greet Michaëlle Jean in Haiti

There were tears, hugs and Creole songs as a mobbed Governor General Michaëlle Jean returned to her native Haiti Monday for an emotional tour of the island's wreckage as well as its hopes.

Governor General Michaëlle Jean is flanked by husband Jean-Daniel Lafond and Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin at Ste. Trinité Episcopal Cathedral, where she was baptized. Long connected to the Jean family, Ste. Trinité is famed for its biblical murals painted by some of Haiti's most noted artists. (PAUL CHIASSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

By Kenneth KiddFeature Writer

Tues., March 9, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE–There were tears, hugs and Creole songs as a mobbed Governor General Michaëlle Jean returned to her native Haiti Monday for an emotional tour of the island's wreckage as well as its hopes.

Both were on constant and sometimes jarring display from the moment Jean stepped out of the helicopter and onto the lawn of the collapsed National Palace.

It was a day that would see her visit the devastated church where she was baptized and then be greeted by hundreds of cheering women marking International Women's Day on the grounds of the destroyed ministry of women's rights.

"Mourning is one thing," Jean said from a gazebo on the palace lawn after a meeting with Haitian President René Préval. "Making sure that life triumphs over destruction is the focus."

Préval, who moments earlier had spoken of Haiti's historic chance to rebuild, had also noted that the godmother of Jean's child had perished in the Jan. 12 earthquake.

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"I want the Haitian people to know: You are not alone," Jean said. "What I want you to know is that everywhere in Canada ... people are determined to accompany you here as you rebuild."

Barely six metres in front of her, a replica of the ancient Greek statue of Venus de Milo, painted black, still stood atop its white concrete plinth. The earthquake had rotated it 45 degrees, but it hadn't fallen.

Far less fortunate was Jean's next stop, Ste. Trinité Episcopal Cathedral, the UNESCO World Heritage Site where Jean was baptized. It is now mostly tonnes of rubble.

Dressed casually in khaki pants and green jacket, Jean was clearly shaken as she walked among the ruins with a tearful Jean Zaché Duracin, bishop of Haiti. Ste. Trinité, with long connections to the Jean family, is famed for its biblical murals painted by some of Haiti's most noted artists.

Duracin had a surviving fragment of one mural, painted by an artist from Jean's hometown of Jacmel, to present to the Governor General. It was, for Jean, such a precious and moving gift that she initially seemed reluctant to accept it.

At an otherwise jubilant rally amid the ruins of the ministry of women's rights, Jean finally cried during a song dedicated to a friend who died in the quake, the feminist Magalie Marcelin.

After being serenaded by hundreds of women, Jean was greeted warmly by Nadeje Augustin, deputy mayor of Port-au-Prince. "I want to tell you: Walls fell. Many people are dead," Augustin said. "But we, the women of Haiti, are still here."

Even in the wake of the destruction, violence against women remains an ongoing problem in Haiti, a topic Jean addressed directly.

She told the assembled women that the hopes of the entire country rested with them, that they deserved the respect of men, both in the audience and elsewhere.

In a blog posting the day before her trip to Haiti, Jean spoke about her mother, who left an abusive relationship to raise her children alone in a 1 1/2-room basement apartment in Montreal.

She used her mother's battle with Alzheimer's as an analogy for Haiti, a place with countless gaps in its history, with thousands of places lost forever as people increasingly forget what used to stand in those now-crumbled spots.

"I tell her, searching deep in her eyes for a light – a glimmer – that would be worth a thousand words. I try and tell her, not knowing whether she understands, that I'm going to Jacmel, to the place of her birth, to remember the many happy days from our previous life, long ago."

Jean capped the first day of her visit with a trip to the town of Léogâne, where she applauded the efforts of the members of the Canadian Forces, who have provided medical care to some 22,000 people.

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